The most (and least) popular devices used to browse Ausdroid in 2017

Inspired by this post on Android Police, we decided to trawl through our Analytics to figure out which devices had been most popular amongst readers of Ausdroid, and those devices which barely rated a mention.

Why do this? I was interested to see if there was much difference doing this for an Australian audience as opposed to a much larger US-based website. Of the 2,000,000 mobile sessions with Ausdroid this year, there are some surprising findings, including some similarities and a few differences to the US experience. So, read on to find out how we put this together, and the results we found.

Methodology

Like Android Police, our data is compiled using Google Analytics, which allows you to sort traffic by mobile device. About 5% of our mobile traffic doesn’t register a particular device, either because of their browser or because the manufacturer of the phone left the field undefined. It’s also worth noting that unlike other series phones (e.g. Galaxy S4, S5, S6), Apple’s devices aren’t broken down — all iPhones report as iPhone, and iPads as iPad; there’s no indication of which particular device is used.

The top 10 devices (as well as Apple)

Apple iPhone – 13.07%

Apple iPad – 6.08%

Google Nexus 6P – 5.49%

Google Pixel XL – 4.54%

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge – 4.44%

Samsung Galaxy S7 – 3.47%

Google Pixel – 3.03%

Google Nexus 5X – 2.33%

Samsung Galaxy S8 – 1.85%

Samsung Galaxy S8+ – 1.83%

Samsung Galaxy S5 – 1.71%

Samsung Galaxy S6 – 1.63%

A somewhat surprising finding is that, in total, 19.15% of our mobile audience used Apple devices. We can’t say which ones, beyond iPhone and iPad, but still, that’s a big slice of the pie.

To keep it a bit more relevant, here’s the same data for the month of December 2017, showing which current devices are most popular:

Apple iPhone – 19.32%

Apple iPad – 8.64%

Google Pixel 2 XL – 5.06%

Samsung Galaxy S8 – 3.42%

Samsung Galaxy S7 – 2.93%

Samsung Galaxy S8+ – 2.74%

Google Pixel XL – 2.61%

Google Nexus 6P – 2.52%

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge – 2.17%

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – 2.16%

Google Pixel – 1.78%

Samsung Galaxy S5 – 1.56%

Here’s some strange findings

Firstly, whoever’s still using the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, return that deathtrap and get a refund. 7 readers used the Galaxy Note 7 regularly during December 2017. Like seriously, wtf?

The top phones that aren’t Apple? They’re dominated by Google’s Pixel line and Samsung’s flagship phones. By a convincing margin, too. In fact, to get past these phones and find something different, we have to dig down the list quite a bit. Here’s where there’s some other flavour, and this is for the month of December only:

Number 16: Acer A1-850 Iconia

Number 18: OnePlus 5

Number 19: LG G6

Number 20: HTC 10

Number 22: Moto G5 Plus

One thing we can draw from this is that LG users aren’t ranked highly in our readership either. LG G6 fares reasonably well at #19, and then we dig down and find the V20 at #26, V30 at #32 and LG’s G4 (still going, apparently) at #36.

Motorola does alright, first showing at #22 with the Moto G5 Plus and at #24 with Moto G4. The fact that they’re not a huge percentage of our readership (something like 1% of mobile devices in total) says that Motorola, while doing well, could do a lot better.

HTC’s 10 is at position #20, and the rest of their devices don’t even show in the top 100. This doesn’t bode well, despite the (apparent) popularity of the HTC U11 range.

The first Sony appears at position #35, with the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. The Xperia Z5 is way lower at #48. While Sony made a lot of song and dance about these phones earlier in the year, they’re really not advertised all that widely – compared to say Samsung and Google’s devices – and so it isn’t all that surprising there aren’t many readers using them.

Huawei is another surprise, with their P9 and Mate 9 the first appearances around #37 – #45. This year’s Huawei P10 rated a mere 0.10% of the readership at rank #87. The Mate 10 range didn’t even factor.

The last but not least is old Nexus phones – the Nexus 5X and 6P are well over two years old now, and yet still account for a combined 3.66% of visitors in December 2017. Apparently people don’t like to let go of a good thing .. not that the Nexus 5X was much good, but the 6P was certainly better.

What can we make of this?

Our mobile readership – which is roughly half of our entire readership – prefers Google and Samsung products (when they’re not using Apple). So, next time you’re wondering why we devote so much time to Samsung and Google rumours, now you know.

There’s significantly less use of what we would consider the other ‘major’ brands such as LG, HTC and Sony. Huawei is also surprisingly low on the overall readership.

Perhaps most relevant at this time of the yearly cycle – in the month or two prior to Mobile World Congress – is that precisely nothing launched at MWC 2017 features in the top 10, either for the year or for the month of December. In fact, the highest of them – LG’s G6 – doesn’t show until position 19.

I think what we can take from this is something we’ve known for a while; Ausdroid’s readership prefers the mainstream devices, and though there is significant vocal interest in more niche devices (and those from emerging manufacturers), those vocal users do not make up the bulk of our actual readers. We’ll take something from these findings into 2018, and we look forward to seeing what exciting new products we can report on next year!

Chris Rowland Editor and Publisher

Chris has been at the forefront of smartphone reporting in Australia since smartphones were a thing, and has used mobile phones since they came with giant lead-acid batteries that were "transportable" and were carried in a shoulder bag. He saw the transition from AMPS to GSM, loved the Motorola StarTac, and got into Palm technologies in a big way. The arrival some years later of the original iPhone, and then the early Androids, awoke a new interest in mobile technology, and Chris has been writing about it since.

Today, Chris publishes one of Australia's most popular technology websites, Ausdroid. His interests include mobile (of course), as well as connected technology and how it can make all our lives easier.

It shows that Apple is still the dominant force with Aussie consumers.. I am one of those wih an iPad my pad is six years old and goes great guns and I would have bought the iPhone X but for the ridiculous price no phone is worth that much so bought the iPhone eight instead. I love reading ausdroid to see if android is catching up to Apple .still not there .love the look of S8 but iPhone X looks even better .

Fascinating. The Apple usage is interesting, but not surprising because it’s always good to keep up on what’s going on over the other side of the fence

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7 months ago

Valued Guest

Oldmike

I don’t know if reading about a particular device means it is the most popular , It could just mean the device is in the news for all the wrong reasons , The abundance of issues with the pixel for example . The nexus 6p and orio issues , shutting down and battery issues .. As a bit of a phone geek myself i have probably looked at one particular model sooooo many times In articles and tube reviews ……. and then at the end of it decided , it’s not for me . So yeah i don’t know that… Read more »

I think the point was that people are using the popular mobile devices (Apple, Google, Samsung) to read Ausdroid. And though they may have issues, people are using them to read the site. It may be too fine a point but perhaps it’s more about what device people are ‘reading on’ rather than the device they are ‘reading about’ that guages the popularity.

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7 months ago

Ausdroid Reader

Dean Rosolen

7 readers used the Galaxy Note 7.

Coincidence? I think not.

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7 months ago

Valued Guest

n02

In relation to this, my note 4 shows up as a note 7 due to the custom rom. I’d think this is more likely the case

That’s also a good point. Let’s not forget that some people likely ended up buying the FE version of the note 7

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7 months ago

Valued Guest

Oldmike

I would use a galaxy note 7 Fe edition no problem , these are the 3rd and final edition that don’t have the problem batteries of version one , or two . Even though the 7 fe is old tech now ,. I still like the look of it over the current model.

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6 months ago

Valued Guest

Geoff Stewart

I’m a bit surprised by the 19% who say they have Apples, I didn’t think Apple users even admitted that anything else existed, so what are they doing on an Android website. Methinks someones having a larf.

I’m a Google / Nexus / Pixel fan boy and staunch supporter but I use an iPad Air for a tablet. I tried the Pixel C and it sucked and can’t bring myself to buy a Samsung tablet. In my eyes there is no doubt who makes the best tablets. Apple does.